PROGRAM OUTREACH
GREEN THUMBS UP:
GARDENING AND COOKING CLASSES TAKE OFF WITH OLIVER HOUSE SENIORS
by Melanie Heckman Education Program Manager
“I’m having a very good time planting seeds in the garden. I did some canning since we’ve had the garden; I did cold pack with the green tomatoes, the okra…and the corn, tomatoes. It’s just very exciting to be outside and planting away!” -- Joan Norman, as she and other members of the “Thumbs Up” garden club were harvesting okra and tending the garden beds this past summer.
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t 10:30 on a cold Wednesday morning, the room was filled with new faces, new perspectives, and new smells. Participants in the morning’s cooking class were up to their elbows in grated apples, juiced lemons, and shredded beets. As they grazed, squeezed, mixed, and chopped, they happily chatted away and shared some of their experiences with fresh foods and desires for healthier lives. This might seem like a typical scene from a room full of high school culinary students, environmentally-minded young adults, or Oakhurst families, but it wasn’t. Instead, the energetic and enthusiastic participants were residents of the Decatur Housing Authority’s new senior housing facility, Oliver House. The Wylde Center has a long-standing partnership with the Decatur Housing Authority to bring gardening and garden-based healthy living to DHA residents. For several years, they have worked together to bring community gardening to families at the Spring Pointe apartments. Wylde Center programming at the DHA’s community center continues to reach hundreds of young students, educating them about gardening, healthy food choices, and more. With this history of garden-based programming, the Wylde Center was thrilled when the plans for the newly-built Oliver House facility included resident gardens. Completed in September 2012, the award-winning Oliver House is now home for 80 senior residents. Oliver House was built not only to promote the activity, safety, and comfort of its residents, but also to set the bar for quality and green design in affordable senior housing. In November 2013, this facility that includes Section 8 housing was named an Allen Wilson Development of Excellence by the Atlanta Regional Commission, signifying its cutting-edge and resident-friendly design that positively impacts the surrounding community. Oliver House is also a certified EarthCraft Multifamily building, with its energy-efficient design, solar power generation, geothermal heating and air conditioning, rainwater harvesting for irrigation and toilets, and much more. In the center of this energy-efficient, green building are the Oliver House garden beds. Since 2013, the Wylde Center has been funded by generous grants from Kaiser Permanente and the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority to lead garden programming at Oliver House using these garden beds. The goal: increase physical activity, gardening knowledge, healthy cooking habits, access to fresh produce, and overall wellness for Oliver House seniors. Gardening was nothing new to the seniors in the garden club—over 75% had worked in a garden before! However, none of them had access to a garden over recent years, and they were all excited to get back in the garden. After voicing what they wanted to grow, seniors dug in with planting eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. As they
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ABOVE: Seniors at Oliver House made applesauce as part of their November workshop on canning and preserving fresh foods for cold months.
BELOW: Raised beds in the courtyard of Oliver House, planted with okra, summer squash and watermelon for food, and with flowers for pleasure.